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  • A Schule Laddie’s Lament on the Lateness o’ the Season
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A Schule Laddie’s Lament on the Lateness o’ the Season

J. Logie Robertson

The east wind’s whistlin’ cauld an’ shrill,
The snaw lies on the Lomont Hill;
It’s simmer i’ the almanack,
But when ‘ill simmer days be back?

There’s no’ a bud on tree or buss;
The craws are at a sair nonplus,—
Hoo can they big? hoo can they pair?
Wi’ them sae cauld, and wuds sae bare.

My faither canna saw his seed,—
The hauf o’ th’ laund’s to ploo, indeed;
The lambs are deein’, an’ the yowes
Are trauchled wanderin’ owre the knowes.

There’s no’ a swallow back as yet,
The robin doesna seek to flit;
There’s no’ a buckie, nor a bud,
On ony brae, in ony wud.

It’s no’ a time for barefit feet
When it may be on-ding o’ sleet.
The season’s broken a’ oor rules,—
It’s no’ the time o’ year o’ bools;

It’s no’ the time o’ year o’ peeries.
I think the year’s gane tapsalteeries!
The farmers may be bad, nae doot—
It pits hiz laddies sair aboot.


J. Logie Robertson

Tags:

19th century poems childhood Scotland Scots Scots scottish poems spring strife weather
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J. Logie Robertson1846 - 1922

The author of the popular 'Hughies' - versions in Scots of the odes of Horace, published under the pen-name Hugh Haliburton - J. Logie Robertson was an Edinburgh schoolmaster and writer on Scottish literature and culture.
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